\u201cGuess all those red flags were actual red flags,\u201d said one Reddit user<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWas there even a chance it would end any other way?\u201d said another. \u201cThe guy was bleeding money in law suits, labor judgments.\u201d<\/p>\n Horn\u2019s culinary empire \u2014 which had included six restaurants, a James Beard Award nomination<\/a>, a Michelin Bib Gourmand award<\/a> and two cookbooks<\/a> \u2014 had crumbled.<\/p>\n There were signs of trouble before the Fresno location opened.<\/p>\n Horn faced more than $500,000 in claims<\/a> from at least four separate lawsuits, The San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2024. The fire that destroyed his original Oakland location was deemed arson<\/a> that same year. Claims for unpaid wages were starting to pile up.<\/p>\n It left many in Fresno wondering why people here didn\u2019t pay more attention to the red flags. How could it happen again?<\/p>\n The answer is likely a combination of factors: Of timing. Of people who said Horn appeared to be financially solid when they signed agreements with him. Of workers wooed by the idea of working with a chef with the word Michelin attached to his name, and who either didn\u2019t know about or didn\u2019t care about the warning signs.<\/p>\n And Horn may have committed a classic stumble that chefs who skyrocket to success often do. They get too big too fast.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen that so many times, it\u2019s almost like a script,\u201d said Alfred Goldberg, founder of the Absolute Marketing Solutions<\/a> in Tampa, Fla., which has helped restaurants market themselves and grow for 26 years.<\/p>\n The Bee also talked to Horn Barbecue\u2019s landlord and three employees who worked closely with Horn. The Bee agreed to not use the workers names because they are still seeking unpaid wages and do not want to jeopardize their chances of getting paid.<\/p>\n Horn did not respond to The Bee directly, or his spokesman for this story, though some areas are addressed with his past statements.<\/p>\n \u201cFinancially stable\u201d<\/p>\n Horn signed a lease in March 2025 to pay $12,000 a month in rent, plus fees to maintain the common areas of the shopping center.<\/p>\n Manny Perales owns the building at Granite Park near Dakota and Cedar avenues. Perales used to run Yosemite Falls Cafe<\/a> at that spot \u2014 and still runs its two other locations \u2014 and has decades of restaurant experience.<\/p>\n The lease said Horn would get four months free rent on the 6,500-square-foot space and then start paying rent.<\/p>\n Perales\u2019 broker looked into Horn.<\/p>\n \u201cHe interviewed well and we did our vetting,\u201d Perales said. \u201cThey want to make sure he\u2019s financially stable and he was at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n Horn then had restaurants open in Elk Grove and Lafayette. Perales drove up to Elk Grove to check out the restaurant and called it \u201cbeautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n But it would take Horn 10 months to open the Fresno restaurant. The January opening came much later than the original summertime opening he had planned.<\/p>\n Horn later cited that delay in a statement to The Bee when it reported on employees not getting paid and quitting<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n \u201cHorn Barbecue acknowledges that the delayed opening of our Fresno restaurant created financial challenges that led to payroll delays for some employees,\u201d the statement said in part. \u201cLike many independent restaurants, opening a new location can come with unexpected challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n But it was a struggle to get Horn to pay rent from the beginning, Perales said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe never paid on time,\u201d he said. \u201cIt took a three-day letter posted from the courts. It just happened throughout the whole year.\u201d<\/p>\n Perales eventually ended up evicting the business and is still owed three months rent.<\/p>\n The property is now for sale.<\/a><\/p>\n Too big too fast<\/p>\n Horn shot to fame nationally in 2021 when his restaurant was the first Black-owned barbecue restaurant in the country to receive Michelin\u2019s Bib Gourmand award. The James Beard Foundation Award nomination for Best New Restaurant came a year later.<\/p>\n Food + Wine named Horn one of the Best New Chefs of 2021<\/a>. The New York Times wrote about the line<\/a> outside his first Oakland restaurant.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you are f\u00eated as a genius and you start winning industry accolades, it is perfectly normal to feel like you can do no wrong,\u201d said Goldberg, the restaurant consultant in Florida.<\/p>\n Customers and sometimes investors who come in after the awards are handed out start demanding chefs expand to new markets, Goldberg said.<\/p>\n But being a talented chef and running a business are two separate skills, he said. Goldberg doesn\u2019t have firsthand knowledge of Horn or his restaurants, but has seen this pattern repeat itself in the industry.<\/p>\n \u201cThe necessary skills to run multiple restaurants are completely different than it is to run a single restaurant,\u201d he said. \u201cMany chefs are never taught those skills. Those are business skills.\u201d<\/p>\n At one point, three Horn Barbecue locations were open and Horn was working on launching the spot in Fresno, a combination that soon proved unwieldy, employees confirmed.<\/p>\n They said meat was being smoked in Lafayette and driven to Oakland and Elk Grove.<\/p>\n Several employees said they thought money was being mismanaged.<\/p>\n One said Horn didn\u2019t understand payroll taxes. Money was spent on liquor bottles that went unused before a restaurant had developed its bar program, a worker said. Another said Horn spent money on high-end whiskey, cigars and a country club membership.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wanted to blow up too big too fast,\u201d said one worker. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t tell Matt to slow down. Telling him to slow down was like a slap in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n When new locations are opened up too quickly, they can siphon off profits from healthy locations and \u201cbefore you know it, the healthy store is not healthy,\u201d Goldberg said.<\/p>\n Landlord Perales noted how far Fresno was from the other restaurants.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been in the business for 45 years and I know when you open up a restaurant, you\u2019ve got to live it, breathe it, at least for the first year,\u201d he said. \u201cTo be in Elk Grove \u2014 demographically speaking \u2014 East Bay and Fresno … it\u2019s too spread out.\u201d<\/p>\n All of this was happening during an extremely tough environment for any restaurant to survive, Goldberg said. Scores of restaurants<\/a> have closed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unpaid wages and Horn\u2019s response<\/p>\n Since the Fresno Horn Barbecue\u2019s closure, a former employee has filed a class-action lawsuit<\/a> seeking unpaid wages in Alameda County. The Fresno\u2019s City Attorney\u2019s Office confirmed it is investigating the restaurant for wage theft<\/a>. And 14 claims for back pay in Fresno, 25 statewide, have been filed with the State of California.<\/p>\n Horn declined to comment for this story. But in a previous emailed statement<\/a>, he reminded people that the restaurant industry is facing \u201cone of the most difficult economic environments in recent memory. Rising food costs, inflation, higher labor expenses, and reduced consumer spending have forced many restaurants \u2014 including longtime institutions \u2014 to close their doors.\u201d<\/p>\n He also pushed back against some of the conversation surrounding his closures as a Black-owned business.<\/p>\n \u201cToo often, when businesses struggle under extraordinary economic pressures, those challenges are understood as the result of difficult market conditions. But when a Black-owned business experiences those same pressures, the conversation can quickly shift from economics to assumptions about character or intent.<\/p>\n The issue is not whether Horn Barbecue faced significant financial headwinds \u2014 those challenges have affected restaurants across California. The question is whether Black-owned businesses are afforded the same context, fairness, and presumption of good faith that others receive while disputes are resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n ![\"Horn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/FRS_AnticipatedRestaurants_02.JPG\" "\\"FRS_AnticipatedRestaurants_02.JPG\\"")
Horn Barbecue\u2019s opening in Fresno was supposed to be a homecoming for chef Matt Horn. When it closed this spring, many wondered how Fresno could miss the red flags that happened at other locations. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com ![\"Fresno](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/FRS_horn_bbq_005.JPG\" "\\"FRS_horn_bbq_005.JPG\\"")
Fresno native and acclaimed barbecue chef Matt Horn sits with a selection of barbecue meats and sides at his restaurant Horn Barbecue, in this file photo from Jan. 20, 2026. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com ![\"Horn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/FRS_AnticipatedRestaurants_03.JPG\" "\\"FRS_AnticipatedRestaurants_03.JPG\\"")
Horn Barbecue was founded by Fresno native chef Matt Horn near Cedar and Dakota avenues in Granite Park. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com
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